Five by Fifteen initiative launched

Marie Stopes International (MSI) is pleased to introduce Five by Fifteen, an initiative to highlight the positive and proven contribution that voluntary family planning and reproductive healthcare can make to achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 - improving maternal health - by 2015.

The international community is a long way from achieving MDG5. A woman still dies every 1-2 minutes of every day from a pregnancy-related cause. 215 million women want access to safe and effective family planning but do not currently have it.

Over the coming year, Five by Fifteen will demonstrate that a relentless focus on serving the underserved, innovating and working in partnership can expand family planning and reproductive healthcare and have a positive impact on maternal mortality.

Quality family planning and reproductive healthcare delivered last year by MSI alone will:

prevent 9.3 million unwanted pregnancies and 2.6 million unsafe abortions

save individuals, communities and national health budgets £855 million in healthcare expenditure, or £18 for every £1 invested in MSI’s programming

avert 36,000 maternal deaths.

You can find out more about the initiative and the difference that family planning and reproductive healthcare can make by visiting our interactive website www.fivebyfifteen.org. The website includes an Impact Calculator that allows you to easily evaluate the impact of MSI’s family planning and reproductive health service delivery, both by country and by service.

Let’s join together to make Five by Fifteen a reality.

Why Five? The United Nations Millennium Development Goal 5 calls for a reduction in the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and universal access to reproductive health.

Why Fifteen? That’s the deadline. 2015 is the target date to achieve this Goal.